I had driven down from San Jose to pick up Jackie from UCSB for
the Thanksgiving weekend. We were heading to my sister's place
in Santa Clarita for the evening before driving down to San Diego
to join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving Day. On our way
between Santa Barbara and Santa Clarita, we paused for a break to
stretch our legs and bag a few easy peaks before continuing our drive.
Peak 1,592ft
This summit is located southwest of Simi Valley, east of SR23 in
the hills above Wood Ranch Reservoir (aka Bard Lake).
Using the Sunset Hills Blvd
exit, we drove to the end of McCrea Rd in a residential
neighborhood and started from there. An informal trail follows up
a drainage culvert to reach an Open Space trail
that runs across
the summit ridgeline, taking less than ten minutes to reach the
top. A security fence surrounding the reservoir runs along the
north side of the trail and over the summit. There are two points
vying for the highpoint - the western point appears to be slightly
higher than the eastern one with the 1,592-foot spot elevation.
Both are rounded, grassy knolls. The summit offers views of
the reservoir, surrounding hills, and the
Thousand Oaks/Simi Valley
communities.
Peak 1,350ft - Mt. McCoy
These closely-spaced summits are found on the west side of Simi
Valley, near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We parked on
the northeast side of the summits at the end of Washburn St, in
a residential neighborhood where Google Maps shows the
Mt. McCoy Trailhead.
This was a longer hike, about 2mi roundtrip and
600ft of gain. There are various informal trails one might
use to reach the summits. On the ascent we used one that takes
about 10 switchbacks to reach the shallow saddle between the
summits, and a more direct way off McCoy for the descent. We visited
the slightly higher Peak 1,350ft first, itself with two summits
on the south and west sides of a large water tank. We visited
the southern point first, from where the western one appears
lower. So Jackie left me to visit the western one on my own before
rejoining her. It wasn't obvious from the western point as to
the highpoint and the GPXr readings were too inaccurate in the
high wind conditions we found today, since it incorporates
barometric pressure readings. Despite this, my money is on the southern
point as the highpoint. We sauntered over to Mt. McCoy,
topped by a white cross, with views overlooking Simi Valley. We
found the descent route a bit treacherous with poor footing -
the ascent route was much better, we thought. We spent about an
hour on the roundtrip before continuing on our way to Santa
Clarita.